BANGOR — As a result of the State Envirothon held on May 26 at the University of Maine in Augusta, Jay High School will represent Maine at the international Canon Envirothon competition July 24-29 in New Brunswick, Canada.

The Maine Association of Conservation Districts awarded plaques to the three top-scoring high school Envirothon teams at the event. The first, second and third place winning teams respectively were Jay High School, Bonny Eagle from Standish and Boghaunter Home School from Gray/Casco. Sixteen teams representing 16 high schools from around the state competed at this event.

Envirothon, Maine’s largest high school environmental education program, is an international program representing more than 500,000 high school students in the United States and Canada. The international Canon Envirothon, organized by local conservation districts and other conservation agencies, is sponsored by Canon USA, in partnership with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, USDA Forest Service, National Association of Conservation Districts, Mead Westvaco Corporation, American Electric Power Inc. and Alcoa Foundation.

The major objective of the Maine Envirothon is to provide opportunities for high school students or organized groups of high school-aged students to acquire and increase their outdoor skills and scientific knowledge about Maine’s natural resources so that they can make informed, educated decisions about the environment. It provides students with reference materials, workshops and hands-on, outdoor, real-life experiences in five areas including forestry, wildlife, soils, aquatics and protection of fresh and saltwater marshes.

Other high schools competing in the State Envirothon finals included Belfast, Ellsworth, Greely, Hampden Academy, Hodgdon, Lee Academy, Lisbon, Livermore Falls, Mt. Ararat, Nokomis, Piscataquis Community, Presque Isle and Washington Academy. These teams represented the top four winning teams from four regional competitions held around the state earlier in May, with the exception of Hampden Academy and Livermore Falls, who placed fifth in the regional competition but replaced Brunswick High School and Old Town High School who were eligible but unable to attend.

As part of the closing festivities at the State Envirothon, Poland Spring representatives presented a $500 check to the winning Jay High School team as a start to their funding-raising activities to pay for their travel expenses to the international Canon Envirothon competition. In addition, the USDA Natural Resources will offer a summer internship position to a senior on the winning team.

For more information, visit maineenvirothon.org or www.envirothon.org.